Catharine Waugh McCulloch was a lawyer, suffragist, and activist. She was born Catharine Waugh in New York in 1862, and her family later moved to Illinois, where she was raised. She graduated from the Rockford Female Seminary in 1882 where she wrote a thesis, “Woman’s Wages,” and earned both her B.A. and M.A. degrees. She went on to study at the Union College of Law in Chicago, and after she graduated, Waugh was admitted to the Illinois state bar in 1886. She searched for a position with a Chicago law firm, but she found that there were few opportunities for female lawyers, despite her skills and qualifications, so she returned to Rockford to establish a practice there.… Read More
A Lincoln Pilgrimage: The Hal Seaberg Travelogues and Correspondence
The Hal Seaberg Travelogues and Correspondence, 1939-1942 (MS 1013) describe the travels of Carl Hjalmar Seaberg (who went by Hal), a Swedish immigrant and steelworker who spent his summers from 1939 to 1942 visiting sites related to Abraham Lincoln. He worked in a steel plant in Midland, Pennsylvania, and would use his vacation days to travel for two weeks over the summers.
Seaberg immigrated to the United States from Sweden around 1923. In the introduction to his first travelogue, “Twice a Pilgrim through the Lincoln Country,” he described how he set out to learn about his new country:
His study of American history led Seaberg to Abraham Lincoln.… Read More
Stephen Harriman Long: Exploring the West
Stephen Harriman Long was an explorer, engineer, and inventor. Born in Hopkinton, New Hampshire, in 1784, Long attended Dartmouth College and went on to become a professor of mathematics at the U.S. Military Academy. He served as an officer and civil engineer in the Corps of Topographical Engineers for the U.S. Army and participated in a number of expeditions between 1816 and 1824 before working with railroads, bridge construction, and river navigation improvements.
Long was selected to lead an exhibition to survey potential sites for Army forts west of the Mississippi River in 1817. Based on his recommendations from the journey, the U.S.… Read More
#SmallTownSaturday – Vandalia, IL
